Sybase 2 User manual

DataWindow Designer User’s Guide

DataWindow .NET

™

2.0

DOCUMENT ID: DC00043-01-0200-01

LAST REVISED: March 2006

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Contents

DataWindow Designer User’s Guide iii

About This Book.......................................................................................................................... xv

PART 1 THE DATAWINDOW DESIGNER ENVIRONMENT

CHAPTER 1 Working with DataWindow Designer............................................. 3

About DataWindow Designer........................................................... 4

The DataWindow Designer environment.......................................... 4

About the PowerBar .................................................................. 5

Working with projects....................................................................... 6

Working with DataWindow objects................................................... 7

Creating new DataWindow objects ........................................... 8

Opening existing DataWindow objects...................................... 8

Running or previewing DataWindow objects............................. 9

Working in painters ........................................................................ 10

Using views in painters............................................................ 10

Using pop-up menus ............................................................... 15

Defining colors......................................................................... 16

Working with tools.......................................................................... 17

Using the file editor.................................................................. 17

Using the To-Do List................................................................ 18

Setting properties........................................................................... 20

Using toolbars ................................................................................ 21

Toolbar basics......................................................................... 21

Drop-down toolbars................................................................. 21

Controlling the display of toolbars ........................................... 22

Moving toolbars using the mouse............................................ 23

Customizing toolbars............................................................... 23

Creating new toolbars ............................................................. 28

Using online Help........................................................................... 29

Customizing keyboard shortcuts.................................................... 30

Changing fonts............................................................................... 31

Contents

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How your DataWindow Designer environment is managed........... 32

About the registry.................................................................... 32

About the initialization file........................................................ 33

CHAPTER 2 Working with Libraries.................................................................. 35

About libraries................................................................................ 35

About the Library painter................................................................ 36

Working with libraries..................................................................... 37

Displaying libraries and objects............................................... 37

Using the pop-up menu........................................................... 38

Controlling columns that display in the List view..................... 38

Selecting objects..................................................................... 39

Filtering the display of objects................................................. 39

Filtering the display of libraries and folders............................. 40

Opening and previewing objects............................................. 40

Copying, moving, and deleting objects.................................... 40

Setting the root........................................................................ 42

Moving back, forward, and up one level.................................. 42

Modifying comments ............................................................... 43

Deleting libraries...................................................................... 44

Optimizing libraries......................................................................... 44

Regenerating library entries........................................................... 45

Migrating libraries.................................................................... 45

Exporting and importing entries ..................................................... 46

Creating a deployment library (PBD file)........................................ 48

Including additional resources in the PBD file......................... 48

What happens at runtime........................................................ 49

Creating a library directory report................................................... 49

CHAPTER 3 Managing the Database................................................................. 51

Working with database components.............................................. 51

Managing databases...................................................................... 54

Using the Database painter............................................................ 55

Modifying database preferences............................................. 58

Logging your work................................................................... 59

Creating and deleting an Adaptive Server Anywhere database..... 60

Working with tables........................................................................ 62

Creating a new table from scratch........................................... 62

Creating a new table from an existing table............................ 63

Specifying column definitions.................................................. 64

Specifying table and column properties .................................. 64

Altering a table ........................................................................ 68

Cutting, copying, and pasting columns.................................... 70

Contents

DataWindow Designer User’s Guide v

Closing a table......................................................................... 70

Dropping a table...................................................................... 70

Viewing pending SQL changes............................................... 71

Printing the table definition...................................................... 72

Exporting table syntax............................................................. 72

About system tables................................................................ 73

Creating and editing Sybase Adaptive Server temporary

tables................................................................................ 74

Working with keys.......................................................................... 75

Working with indexes..................................................................... 79

Working with database views......................................................... 81

Manipulating data........................................................................... 86

Retrieving data........................................................................ 86

Modifying data......................................................................... 87

Sorting rows ............................................................................ 88

Filtering rows........................................................................... 89

Viewing row information .......................................................... 90

Importing data ......................................................................... 90

Printing data............................................................................ 91

Saving data ............................................................................. 91

Creating and executing SQL statements ....................................... 92

Building and executing SQL statements ................................. 92

Customizing the editor............................................................. 95

Controlling access to the current database.................................... 96

PART 2 DATAWINDOWS

CHAPTER 4 Defining DataWindow Objects..................................................... 99

About DataWindow objects............................................................ 99

DataWindow object examples............................................... 100

Choosing a presentation style...................................................... 101

Using the Tabular style.......................................................... 102

Using the Freeform style ....................................................... 102

Using the Grid style............................................................... 103

Using the Label style............................................................. 103

Using the N-Up style ............................................................. 105

Using the Group style............................................................ 106

Using the Composite style..................................................... 107

Using the Graph and Crosstab styles.................................... 108

Using the TreeView style....................................................... 108

Building a DataWindow object ..................................................... 109

Selecting a data source................................................................ 110

Contents

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Using Quick Select....................................................................... 112

Selecting a table.................................................................... 113

Selecting columns................................................................. 114

Specifying sorting criteria...................................................... 115

Specifying selection criteria................................................... 115

Using SQL Select......................................................................... 121

Selecting tables and views.................................................... 122

Selecting columns................................................................. 124

Displaying the underlying SQL statement............................. 125

Joining tables ........................................................................ 126

Using retrieval arguments ..................................................... 129

Specifying selection, sorting, and grouping criteria............... 130

Using Query ................................................................................. 136

Using External.............................................................................. 136

Using Stored Procedure............................................................... 137

Using ADO DataSet..................................................................... 139

Choosing DataWindow object-wide options................................. 141

Generating and saving a DataWindow object.............................. 142

About the extended attribute system tables and

DataWindow objects....................................................... 143

Saving the DataWindow object ............................................. 144

Modifying an existing DataWindow object............................. 144

Defining queries........................................................................... 145

Previewing the query............................................................. 146

Saving the query ................................................................... 146

Modifying a query.................................................................. 147

What's next................................................................................... 147

CHAPTER 5 Enhancing DataWindow Objects................................................ 149

Working in the DataWindow painter............................................. 150

Understanding the DataWindow painter Design view........... 152

Using the DataWindow painter toolbars................................ 154

Using the Properties view in the DataWindow painter .......... 155

Selecting controls in the DataWindow painter....................... 156

Resizing bands in the DataWindow painter Design view...... 157

Using zoom in the DataWindow painter................................ 157

Undoing changes in the DataWindow painter....................... 158

Using the Preview view of a DataWindow object......................... 158

Retrieving data...................................................................... 159

Modifying data....................................................................... 161

Viewing row information........................................................ 162

Importing data into a DataWindow object.............................. 163

Using print preview................................................................ 163

Printing data.......................................................................... 165

Contents

DataWindow Designer User’s Guide vii

Working in a grid DataWindow object ................................... 166

Saving data in an external file...................................................... 168

Saving the data as PDF ........................................................ 168

Saving the data in HTML Table format.................................. 169

Working with PSR files.......................................................... 170

Modifying general DataWindow object properties........................ 171

Changing the DataWindow object style................................. 171

Setting colors in a DataWindow object.................................. 172

Specifying properties of a grid DataWindow object............... 173

Specifying pointers for a DataWindow object........................ 174

Defining print specifications for a DataWindow object .......... 174

Modifying text in a DataWindow object ................................. 178

Defining the tab order in a DataWindow object..................... 179

Naming controls in a DataWindow object.............................. 180

Using borders in a DataWindow object................................. 181

Specifying variable-height bands in a DataWindow object.... 182

Modifying the data source of a DataWindow object .............. 183

Storing data in a DataWindow object using the Data view........... 185

What happens at runtime...................................................... 187

Retrieving data............................................................................. 187

Prompting for retrieval criteria in a DataWindow object ........ 187

Retrieving rows as needed.................................................... 188

Saving retrieved rows to disk ................................................ 189

CHAPTER 6 Controlling Updates in DataWindow Objects........................... 191

About controlling updates............................................................. 191

What you can do ................................................................... 192

Specifying the table to update...................................................... 193

Specifying the unique key columns.............................................. 193

Specifying an identity column....................................................... 194

Specifying updatable columns ..................................................... 194

Specifying the WHERE clause for update/delete......................... 195

Specifying update when key is modified...................................... 197

Using stored procedures to update the database........................ 198

CHAPTER 7 Working with Controls in DataWindow Objects....................... 201

Adding controls to a DataWindow object ..................................... 201

Adding columns to a DataWindow object.............................. 201

Adding text to a DataWindow object ..................................... 202

Adding drawing controls to a DataWindow object................. 203

Adding a group box to a DataWindow object........................ 203

Adding pictures to a DataWindow object............................... 204

Adding computed fields to a DataWindow object.................. 205

Contents

viii

DataWindow .NET

Adding buttons to a DataWindow object ............................... 210

Adding graphs to a DataWindow object................................ 213

Adding InkPicture controls to a DataWindow object.............. 213

Adding reports to a DataWindow object................................ 214

Reorganizing controls in a DataWindow object............................ 214

Displaying boundaries for controls in a DataWindow object . 215

Using the grid and the ruler in a DataWindow object............ 215

Deleting controls in a DataWindow object............................. 216

Moving controls in a DataWindow object .............................. 216

Copying controls in a DataWindow object............................. 216

Resizing controls in a DataWindow object............................ 217

Aligning controls in a DataWindow object............................. 218

Equalizing the space between controls in a DataWindow

object.............................................................................. 218

Equalizing the size of controls in a DataWindow object........ 219

Sliding controls to remove blank space in a DataWindow

object.............................................................................. 219

Positioning controls in a DataWindow object............................... 221

Rotating controls in a DataWindow object ................................... 222

CHAPTER 8 Displaying and Validating Data .................................................. 225

About displaying and validating data............................................ 225

Presenting the data............................................................... 226

Validating data....................................................................... 227

About display formats................................................................... 227

Working with display formats ....................................................... 228

Working with display formats in the Database painter .......... 228

Working with display formats in the DataWindow painter ..... 230

Defining display formats............................................................... 231

Number display formats ........................................................ 233

String display formats............................................................ 235

Date display formats.............................................................. 235

Time display formats............................................................. 237

About edit styles........................................................................... 238

Working with edit styles................................................................ 240

Working with edit styles in the Database painter................... 240

Working with edit styles in the DataWindow painter.............. 242

Defining edit styles....................................................................... 242

The Edit edit style.................................................................. 242

The DropDownListBox edit style........................................... 243

The CheckBox edit style........................................................ 244

The RadioButtons edit style .................................................. 245

The EditMask edit style......................................................... 246

Contents

DataWindow Designer User’s Guide ix

The DropDownDataWindow edit style................................... 249

The InkEdit edit style............................................................. 251

Defining a code table ................................................................... 251

How code tables are implemented........................................ 252

How code tables are processed............................................ 253

Validating user input.............................................................. 254

About validation rules................................................................... 255

Understanding validation rules.............................................. 255

Working with validation rules........................................................ 256

Defining validation rules............................................................... 257

Defining a validation rule in the Database painter................. 257

Defining a validation rule in the DataWindow painter............ 260

How to maintain extended attributes............................................ 263

CHAPTER 9 Filtering, Sorting, and Grouping Rows..................................... 265

Filtering rows................................................................................ 265

Sorting rows ................................................................................. 267

Suppressing repeating values............................................... 269

Grouping rows.............................................................................. 270

Using the Group presentation style....................................... 272

Defining groups in an existing DataWindow object............... 276

CHAPTER 10 Highlighting Information in DataWindow Objects ................... 285

Highlighting information................................................................ 285

Modifying properties when designing.................................... 285

Modifying properties at runtime............................................. 286

Modifying properties conditionally at runtime............................... 289

Example 1: creating a gray bar effect.................................... 290

Example 2: rotating controls.................................................. 291

Example 3: highlighting rows of data..................................... 292

Example 4: changing the size and location of controls ......... 294

Supplying property values............................................................ 295

Background.Color.................................................................. 297

Border.................................................................................... 298

Brush.Color ........................................................................... 299

Brush.Hatch........................................................................... 300

Color...................................................................................... 301

Font.Escapement (for rotating controls)................................ 302

Font.Height............................................................................ 303

Font.Italic............................................................................... 304

Font.Strikethrough................................................................. 305

Font.Underline....................................................................... 306

Font.Weight........................................................................... 306

Contents

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DataWindow .NET

Format................................................................................... 307

Height.................................................................................... 307

Pen.Color .............................................................................. 308

Pen.Style............................................................................... 308

Pen.Width.............................................................................. 310

Pointer................................................................................... 310

Protect................................................................................... 311

Timer_Interval ....................................................................... 311

Visible.................................................................................... 311

Width..................................................................................... 312

X............................................................................................ 312

X1, X2.................................................................................... 313

Y............................................................................................ 313

Y1, Y2.................................................................................... 314

Specifying colors.......................................................................... 314

CHAPTER 11 Using Nested Reports ................................................................. 317

About nested reports.................................................................... 317

Creating a report using the Composite presentation style........... 319

Placing a nested report in another report..................................... 321

Placing a related nested report in another report.................. 321

Placing an unrelated nested report in another report............ 324

Working with nested reports......................................................... 325

Adjusting nested report width and height.............................. 325

Changing a nested report from one report to another........... 326

Modifying the definition of a nested report ............................ 326

Adding another nested report to a composite report............. 327

Supplying retrieval arguments to relate a nested report to

its base report................................................................. 327

Specifying criteria to relate a nested report to its base

report............................................................................. 329

Using options for nested reports ........................................... 330

CHAPTER 12 Working with Crosstabs.............................................................. 333

About crosstabs ........................................................................... 333

Two types of crosstabs.......................................................... 336

Creating crosstabs....................................................................... 337

Associating data with a crosstab.................................................. 338

Specifying the information..................................................... 338

Viewing the crosstab............................................................. 341

Specifying more than one row or column.............................. 343

Previewing crosstabs ................................................................... 344

Contents

DataWindow Designer User’s Guide xi

Enhancing crosstabs.................................................................... 344

Specifying basic properties ................................................... 345

Modifying the data associated with the crosstab................... 346

Changing the names used for the columns and rows........... 346

Defining summary statistics................................................... 347

Cross-tabulating ranges of values......................................... 350

Creating static crosstabs....................................................... 353

Using property conditional expressions................................. 354

CHAPTER 13 Working with TreeViews............................................................. 357

TreeView presentation style......................................................... 357

Creating a new TreeView DataWindow ....................................... 359

TreeView creation process.................................................... 359

Creating a TreeView DataWindow........................................ 359

Adding and deleting TreeView levels........................................... 363

Selecting a tree node and navigating the tree.............................. 364

Sorting rows in a TreeView DataWindow..................................... 365

TreeView DataWindow Design view............................................ 366

Setting properties for the TreeView DataWindow........................ 367

Setting general TreeView properties..................................... 368

Setting TreeView level properties.......................................... 369

Setting detail band properties................................................ 371

TreeView DataWindow samples.................................................. 371

Data Explorer sample............................................................ 372

Data Linker sample ............................................................... 375

CHAPTER 14 Exporting and Importing XML Data........................................... 379

About XML ................................................................................... 379

Valid and well-formed XML documents................................. 380

XML syntax............................................................................ 381

XML parsing.......................................................................... 382

XML support in the DataWindow painter...................................... 383

The Export/Import Template view for XML................................... 384

Creating templates................................................................ 385

Saving templates................................................................... 387

Header and Detail sections................................................... 387

Editing XML templates................................................................. 390

XML declaration .................................................................... 391

Document type declaration.................................................... 392

Root element......................................................................... 393

Controls................................................................................. 394

DataWindow expressions...................................................... 394

Attributes............................................................................... 395

Contents

xii

DataWindow .NET

Composite and nested reports.............................................. 395

CDATA sections.................................................................... 397

Comments............................................................................. 397

Processing instructions ......................................................... 398

Exporting to XML.......................................................................... 398

Setting properties on the Data Export page.......................... 399

Selecting templates at runtime.............................................. 408

Importing XML.............................................................................. 408

Importing with a template...................................................... 409

Default data import................................................................ 413

Tracing import ....................................................................... 416

CHAPTER 15 Working with Graphs................................................................... 419

About graphs................................................................................ 419

Parts of a graph..................................................................... 420

Types of graphs..................................................................... 421

Using graphs in DataWindow objects .......................................... 425

Placing a graph in a DataWindow object............................... 425

Using the graph's Properties view......................................... 426

Changing a graph's position and size.................................... 427

Associating data with a graph ............................................... 428

Using overlays....................................................................... 437

Using the Graph presentation style.............................................. 439

Defining a graph's properties ....................................................... 440

Using the General property page in the graph's Properties

view ............................................................................... 440

Sorting data for series and categories................................... 442

Specifying text properties for titles, labels, axes, and

legends........................................................................... 442

Specifying overlap and spacing............................................. 445

Specifying axis properties ..................................................... 446

Specifying a pointer............................................................... 448

PART 3 APPENDIXES

APPENDIX A Identifiers ..................................................................................... 451

Rules............................................................................................ 451

Reserved words ........................................................................... 452

Contents

DataWindow Designer User’s Guide xiii

APPENDIX B The Extended Attribute System Tables .................................... 453

About the extended attribute system tables................................. 453

The extended attribute system tables.......................................... 454

Edit style types for the PBCatEdt table ........................................ 457

CheckBox edit style (code 85)............................................... 457

RadioButton edit style (code 86)........................................... 458

DropDownListBox edit style (code 87).................................. 459

DropDownDataWindow edit style (code 88).......................... 460

Edit edit style (code 89)......................................................... 461

Edit Mask edit style (code 90)............................................... 463

APPENDIX C Starting DataWindow Designer from the Command Line....... 465

Starting DataWindow Designer from the command line .............. 465

Index ........................................................................................................................................... 467

Contents

xiv

DataWindow .NET

DataWindow Designer User’s Guide xv

About This Book

Audience

This book is written for programmers who need to design DataWindow®

objects. DataWindow objects are used to retrieve, present, and manipulate

data from a relational database or other source. You can use the

DataWindow objects that you build in DataWindow Designer to create

applications for the Microsoft .NET Framework using Sybase

DataWindow .NET™.

How to use this book

This book guides you through the process of using DataWindow Designer

to create DataWindow objects.

Related documents

For information on using DataWindow objects with the Microsoft .NET

Framework, see the DataWindow .NET Programmer's Guide.

For a complete list of books and online documentation, see the preface in

the DataWindow .NET Programmer's Guide.

Other sources of

information

Use the Sybase Getting Started CD, the SyBooks CD, and the Sybase

Product Manuals Web site to learn more about your product:

• The Getting Started CD contains release bulletins and installation

guides in PDF format, and may also contain other documents or

updated information not included on the SyBooks CD. It is included

with your software. To read or print documents on the Getting Started

CD, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download at no

charge from the Adobe Web site using a link provided on the CD.

• The SyBooks CD contains product manuals and is included with your

software. The Eclipse-based SyBooks browser allows you to access

the manuals in an easy-to-use, HTML-based format.

Some documentation may be provided in PDF format, which you can

access through the PDF directory on the SyBooks CD. To read or

print the PDF files, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Refer to the SyBooks Installation Guide on the Getting Started CD, or

the README.txt file on the SyBooks CD for instructions on installing

and starting SyBooks.

xvi DataWindow .NET

• The Sybase Product Manuals Web site is an online version of the SyBooks

CD that you can access using a standard Web browser. In addition to

product manuals, you will find links to EBFs/Maintenance, Technical

Documents, Case Management, Solved Cases, newsgroups, and the

Sybase Developer Network.

To access the Sybase Product Manuals Web site, go to

Product Manuals at

http://www.sybase.com/support/manuals/

.

Sybase EBFs and

software

maintenance

❖ Finding the latest information on EBFs and software maintenance

1 Point your Web browser to the Sybase Support Page at

http://www.sybase.com/support

.

2 Select EBFs/Maintenance. If prompted, enter your MySybase user name

and password.

3 Select a product.

4 Specify a time frame and click Go. A list of EBF/Maintenance releases is

displayed.

Padlock icons indicate that you do not have download authorization for

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role to your MySybase profile.

5 Click the Info icon to display the EBF/Maintenance report, or click the

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If you need help

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designated person contact Sybase Technical Support or the Sybase subsidiary

in your area.

PART 1 The DataWindow Designer

Environment

This part introduces you to DataWindow Designer and

describes how to work in and manage its environment. It

also describes how to work with databases, tables, views,

and extended attributes.

DataWindow Designer User’s Guide 3

CHAPTER 1

Working with DataWindow

Designer

About this chapter

This chapter describes the basics of working with DataWindow Designer

and its painters.

Contents

Topic Page

About DataWindow Designer 4

The DataWindow Designer environment 4

Working with projects 6

Working with DataWindow objects 7

Working in painters 10

Working with tools 17

Setting properties 20

Using toolbars 21

Using online Help 29

Customizing keyboard shortcuts 30

Changing fonts 31

How your DataWindow Designer environment is managed 32

About DataWindow Designer

4 DataWindow .NET

About DataWindow Designer

DataWindow Designer is a tool that creates DataWindow objects for use in

applications. A DataWindow object is an object that you use to retrieve and

manipulate data from a relational database or other data source. The following

DataWindow object retrieves and updates employee data.

DataWindow Designer provides built-in connectivity to a broad range of

desktop and server-based databases. It includes the EAS Demo DB (a Sybase

Adaptive Server® Anywhere database) to create reports and other

DataWindow Designer objects.

When you work in DataWindow Designer, you work in a graphical

environment—and working with data in this environment means you do not

need to understand SQL, the standard programming language for talking to

databases. DataWindow Designer creates all SQL statements behind the scenes

as you build your DataWindow objects and other objects graphically.

Painters

In DataWindow Designer, you do most of your work in the DataWindow

painter, where you “paint” your DataWindow objects. DataWindow Designer

also has painters where you work with databases, libraries, and SQL

statements.

The DataWindow Designer environment

When you start

DataWindow Designer

the first time

In DataWindow Designer, you always work within the context of a

DataWindow project. Information about the project is stored in a text file with

the extension .dwp. The DataWindow objects you create are stored in binary

files called libraries. Library files have the extension .pbl.

To create a new project and a library to hold your DataWindow objects, click

the New button on the PowerBar and select Project from the Project tab page.

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